T-Mobile Renews Attack Against AT&T With Newspaper Campaign

Jan. 28 (Bloomberg) -- T-Mobile US Inc. is once again
taking aim at its favorite target: AT&T Inc.

The company plans to run ads tomorrow in major newspapers
ribbing AT&T for its latest promotion: an offer of as much as
$450 to T-Mobile customers if they change carriers. Since T-Mobile has already agreed to pay the switching costs for
subscribers who defect to T-Mobile, AT&T customers can now go to
T-Mobile and then come back at no cost.

“T-Mobile announced they would pay early termination fees
for customers if they broke up with AT&T and traded in their
device for a new one at T-Mobile,” the new T-Mobile ads say.
“Now AT&T has made that offer essentially risk free.”

The move is the latest salvo between two one-time merger
partners that have become fierce rivals. Under Chief Executive
Officer John Legere, T-Mobile has sought to undercut AT&T’s
prices and overturn industry practices, such as long-term
contracts. The effort has helped T-Mobile add more than 2
million customers this year, reversing a decline for the fourth-largest U.S. carrier.

T-Mobile is now adding more than two AT&T customers for
each one it loses to the rival carrier, Chief Marketing Officer
Mike Sievert said in an interview. That’s an increase from
earlier this month.

“People are flocking to T-Mobile more than any time since
we have been tracking it,” he said.